More than 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone female genital mutilation, or cutting (FGM/C). FGM/C refers to cutting and other procedures that injure the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM/C exists as a cultural practice that is carried out with disturbing regularity. The average age of victims ranges…

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Michigan attorney Shannon Smith only defends people accused of Michigan’s most serious sex crimes. That’s on purpose. “I like the stakes being high,” Smith said in a September interview at her office in Bloomfield Hills, surrounded by pictures of her husband and four children. She turns away…

Two women set to speak Friday in Council Bluffs will offer listeners a glimpse of how poorly women are treated in some Middle Eastern countries. Aynaz Anni Cyrus and Farrah Prudence will speak during “The Real War on Women” from noon to 3 p.m. Friday at Broadway United Methodist Church…

The House Committee on the Judiciary approved on November 2 the Stopping Abusive Female Exploitation (SAFE) Act, bipartisan legislation from Representatives Dave Trott (MI-11) and Carolyn B. Maloney (NY-12) that would increase the federal penalty for female genital mutilation from 5 years to 15 years in prison and encourage states…

Washington — The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday advanced to the full House a bill sponsored by Rep. Dave Trott, R-Birmingham, that would increase the maximum federal penalty for female genital mutilation from five years in prison to 15 years. The legislation came about after federal prosecutors filed charges in the…

Brian O’Shea has led the Exchange to strong growth. Launched in 2011, the self-funded finance-sales company has sold and/or financed such notable films as the award-winning documentary “Gleason,” “Chocolate City,” “A Street Cat Named Bob,” “The Spectacular Now” and “Dear White People.” O’Shea recently talked to Variety about the company, You’re currently working on “A Girl From Mogadishu” from…

The first national Women’s Convention in 40 years opened Friday, featuring speakers who could not condemn female genital mutilation, who called white women “awful”, and who said they are more afraid of Israel supporters than “the mentally ill young people the FBI recruits to join ISIS.” An offshoot of the…

Legislative leaders on Thursday rejected a majority of new bills proposed for consideration in January, including a number that aimed to revive debates from previous sessions. When the second year of the 128th Legislature continues in 2018, lawmakers won’t debate new proposals related to Maine’s bottle redemption system, metallic mineral…

Detroit — A West Bloomfield Township woman accused of delivering her daughter to a doctor who mutilated the girl’s genitalia complained Tuesday that her GPS ankle tether is uncomfortable. Fatema Dahodwala, 31, asked a federal judge to remove the tether, a bond condition imposed in the nation’s first case involving female…